Comment by Ronald Cameron

Comment by Ronald Cameron(English, Français)

The WSF 2016 in Montreal: the need to renew the WSFs process

Looking back at the results and importance of the WSF 2016 in Montreal, the author argues that the renewal of the WSFs process requires more political action, beyond the establishment of inclusive spaces

The project to move the World Social Forum (WSF) into a northern country motivated its holding in Canada. Also, given the climate in January at the time of the World Economic Forum in Davos, it was held in August in 2016, seven months later than usual. This is what makes Alessio Surian (2017) say that the WSF of Montreal was only the aspect of the mobilization of the base of movements, demarcating the more institutional mobilization, whereas WSFs are usually held in January in the South

Many hopes have been put into mobilizing the unorganized. The challenge of participation was thought to be met by the spontaneous presence of tens of thousands of citizens. The involvement and role of social organizations and movements were thus less valued. The nature of the host country and the political context, however, were major obstacles on which the organizing committee had little control.

The fact of being summer season ended up having an impact on local participation. Like many national and international participants, we observed by far the lowest presence of all similar gatherings. In fact, the figure of 15,000 people is probably the maximum reached at the level of participation, instead of the 35,000 announced in the Collective’s assessment. From this point of view, the Montreal WSF did not have the impact that could be expected.

The importance of the Montreal WSF

However, we can not judge the event by trying to compare it, in its results, with the previous editions of the WSFs. Its holding was crucial to avoid a greater dispersion that would be critical for the future of the process. In particular, it helped to eliminate the hypothesis of burial of WSFs which had been circulating for some time within the networks. It has also succeeded in mobilizing a diversity of civil society organizations in Quebec, as well as activists from all regions of the world. It has again demonstrated the importance of the establishment of inclusive spaces, as a factor of reinforcement of the movements’ resistance.

Thus, the Montreal WSF also highlighted the limits and difficulties of the process, fifteen years after the first gathering in Brazil. The Montreal WSF was a relay in a long way to rebuild the WSFs, which continued in Porto Alegre in January 2017. In short, the importance of the WSF in Montreal lies much more in what it reveals to us about the state of the alterglobalist movement than in its immediate results.

If the idea of setting up “sharing spaces” is a necessary condition for the development of “another possible world”, the WSF in Montreal tends to show that it is not enough to adequately respond to the economic situation which is currently developing on the planet.

The demands of the new situation

The first WSF was born in a context of rising social struggles in Brazil and with the popular support mobilized for the Workers’ Party. There was a desire to export energy from local mobilizations at the global level. At the same time, the international context required a broad unified response in order to propose an alternative to neo-liberal globalization ten years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Today, the context is no longer the same.

The questioning of democratic reforms in Latin America, the rise of extreme rights in Europe, the increase of austerity policies all over the world and the recent election of Donald Trump require a more daring political response. Without sacrificing the political independence of the movement and its inclusiveness, several trails for renewal were announced in December. To go beyond the one dimension of sharing experiences, to encourage the renewal of the process and to reinforce the relevance and the scope of the event.

Popular education and the future of the WSFs process

The movement for the right to education for all is a founding movement of the WSFs process. Today, with the demands for renewal imposed by the political context on the alterglobalist movement, the movement for the right to education can participate in the debate on the future of WSFs, notably based on the advances made in popular education .

According to the Charter of Principles, a WSF creates open and inclusive spaces on key themes for the development of another possible world. The movement for the right to education for all shares this methodological approach to “bottom-up” pedagogy, but goes further and puts forward an emancipatory action of social transformation.

The education dimension remains essential to the development of the objectives of social justice and sustainable development, but the future of education depends on its assumption by all the components of civil society. The movement for the right to education must maintain its commitment to the WSF processes, in the broadest alliance with the most important movements.